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A hobbyist’s endeavors…..

Farmerj

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Some 15 years or so ago, I snagged a stevens 200 chambered in .30-06.

I’ve always been one to tinker with my rifles and try to get as much accuracy out of them as I don’t/ didn’t have a budget all the time for a custom built or gun shop worked over smoke pile.

The first rifles I worked over were a pair of Remington 788 rifles. One in .308 Winchester and the other a .243 Winchester. I had chose the 788 because of the action locktime history and function.

Those were the first rifles that I’d glass bedded and installed pillars and had great success with.

I never did mess with their triggers.

Prior to that, I’d had a Ruger 44 carbine refinished and while it was being hot reblued, I stripped the stock and refinished it. I sold it because of the ex-wife. Dumbest reason ever.

About that same time, I got ahold of a Turkish O/U made by Kahn. I had a guy lengthen the forcing cones, played with the action and started to polish triggers. It took my skeet average from 18 to 23-24. I spent a lot of time stripping and refinishing that stock as well.

That’s all led me to my biggest project right now which is this stevens 200 LA.

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I’ve played with the trigger polishing and stoning the sear and trigger to get it to break like glass. Is it world class? Oh no. But is no where near the same lawyer class it was shipped from the manufacturer with. I’ve even started using a q-tip and Flitz to polish the pivot pins etc on the trigger assembly.

I’m happy with the trigger at the moment as the take-up, overtravel and breaking are solid and right at 2 1/2 lbs. for a hunting rifle, it might even be too light. But I can drop it from bench top height and I’ve never had it “fire” to check functionality.

I was at the range one day and a guy was shooting with a muzzle brake and got me curious. It’s made by Witt Machine &Tool out of Colorado. I’d never had a rifle with a brake before. They had a slip on version so that’s what I ordered. This rifle is like 5 1/2 lbs with the scope. So a .30-06 gives it a good kick. This brake reduces it to less than a savage model 10 I had at the time chambered in .243.IMG_0229.jpeg

I’ve got a crappy synthetic stock this rifle came with. There’s some things I want to do with it. Fill the foreend with lead and a couple carbon arrow shafts to stiffen it up. Practice my bedding skills again. Fill the buttstock with lead and epoxy to balance it.

And that brings me to the goofy spacer on the buttpad.

I struggle with most rifles getting into a comfortable position. Tip to tip, my arm span is like 72”. And I have a long neck. Most typical rifles are a 13-13 1/2” Length Of Pull.

Boyd’s Stock has a procedure for figuring out LOP that I used when I got rid of the youth stock on that Model 10 and put a laminated stock onto. I limited it to 14” though. “Winter clothing” fitment.

But it really came back as a 15 1/4” LOP. And be since cut it back 1/2” to 14 3/4”.


The Remington 700 I got from @JLS had the bell & carlson Alaskan stock with a 13 1/4” LOP. It’s not impossible to shoot, but I also remember it’s more of a small mountain/ brush rifle.

The savage model 11 I got last year I dropped into a Bell&Carlson M40 tactical/ Varmint stock specifically because it’s got a 14 1/4” LOP.
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My cousin has a Ruger rear tang mannlicher M77 in .308 Winchester.we are playing with and he was complaining he couldn’t get behind the scope comfortably. Yop, we put a block on his rifle too at 14 1/4 LOP too. I am NOT going to do Jack to modify that original rifle stock. But we may find him a Boyd’s stock he likes. He shoots it, we reload his ammo, he shoots it, we adjust the block, he shots some more.

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I’m looking for a piece of hardwood, boxelder, black walnut, maple, cottonwood, cherry, hickory etc to sculpt my own stocks for my stevens project.

I want to use something like cottonwood or boxelder for the first stock so I don’t destroy a good piece of wood and can practice on.

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What I hope to do someday soon for the Stevens Project.

This is just the start of a page for a project. It’s been a labor of love and interest developing the skills to take things to the next level. Things have and do distract me for a while and then I come back to it.

I have none of the shop equipment someone like @p_ham has. But I still try.

There’s times I get into a flurry and the projects I did in a manner of 6 months develop.

T-B
The Savage Model 10Y in .243 win became a .223 wylde.

Got a synthetic model 11 in .223 Remington and converted it to a .260 Remington

Acquired the Remington 700 SPS mountain clone in .280 Remington from @JLS

And I assembled the Big Horn origin I’d always wanted since the late 80’s. Included in those guns is the load development to take all those rifles to 1000 yards.

The model 10 and 11 share stocks so I can swap them in minutes. I hope to use them for NRL Hunter or PRS.
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Now that I’m home daily and no longer driving semi OTR, things can begin to progress again.

But everything comes together one way or another.
 
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Love it, @Farmerj. Tinkering with your own firearms if a great pasttime.

I've done a few stock refinishes and bedding jobs. There's something nice about being able to work on your own guns.
 
Love it, @Farmerj. Tinkering with your own firearms if a great pasttime.

I've done a few stock refinishes and bedding jobs. There's something nice about being able to work on your own guns.
Especially when those efforts pay off in bringing home results like food or won matches.


Bolts aren’t my only efforts either.

One is just for plinking, the other is an M16A4gery build with a white oak armament service rifle upper. Took almost a year to find a decently priced A1 stock and buffer tube combo for the receiver.
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Boiled Linseed oil, about 20 coats.

I've also been steeping BLO in alkanet root for the last 2-3 years to help create the old-english style red finish. I refinished my #1 with it, but am nowhere near @p_ham's level:

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BLO is good. I’ve got some wood arrows I finished in Chromium Trioxide I want to use on a stock some day.

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Like I said…


I have many directions I go and it all wraps back onto itself in many forms.

Down to the English longbow I made.


This gave me a lot of confidence I can carve a stock.
 
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I used to get my chromium trioxide here…


But it looks like they no longer carry it.

It’s a traditional wood finish that give a rich dark color. It takes a lot of care working with it. Either a chemical hood or outside. Probably the color you’re really looking for @Ben Lamb

It was used for black powder firearms and also on violins and other string instruments.

Goes back centuries as a wood finish.

Rubbed with tung or BLO….:p🤤
 
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I used to get my chromium trioxide here…


But it looks like they no longer carry it.

It’s a traditional wood finish that give a rich dark color. It takes a lot of care working with it. Either a chemical hood or outside. Probably the color you’re really looking for @Ben Lamb

It was used for black powder firearms and also on violins and other string instruments.

Goes back centuries as a wood finish.

Rubbed with tung or BLO….:p🤤

Cool history on the Chromium trioxide! Price of a lot of those kinds of chemicals is going through the roof. The BLO w/alkanet root is the old English method from the Victorian era. There are few other finishes out there worth trying that come close to that old winchester red, as well.
 
Cool history on the Chromium trioxide! Price of a lot of those kinds of chemicals is going through the roof. The BLO w/alkanet root is the old English method from the Victorian era. There are few other finishes out there worth trying that come close to that old winchester red, as well.


Just be really careful if you try the chromium trioxide. That stuff will burn you bad when you mix it into a liquid form from the crystals.

And use it in a WELL ventilated area.
 
This is one of the ongoing projects for the .260 Remington…
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The bullets that I’m working up loads for …
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And figuring out the seating depth to allow for maximum case volume.
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The green line is where the end of the full diameter of the bullet will be at the boat tail in relation to the neck. The red line is where it is at 0.070” off the lands now.


This is the barnes Match burner 140 gr and how it sits in a Magpul magazine.
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This is the Hornady ELD-XIMG_0548.jpeg

And the Nosler Ballistic Tip.
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I never did open the Partitions up to try them yet.


I made a cast of the chamber and measured the free bore and compared it to the SAAMI prints. And it’s right there with it.

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So now I want to figure out how far out I want to push the bullet and rethroat the chamber to change the freebore to give me more case capacity.IMG_7624.jpeg

The last time I shot it, this was one of the groups I shot
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It’s doing better since then and I’ve been getting more comfortable with the scope position and height.
 
Last year, the question I kept having to figure out is “what size rings do I need to mount my scope with.

Ring heights have NO standardization to them. At all.

What I settled on was the old penny trick. Yop, this was a new technique for me as well so I figured I’d share it.

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Figure out how many Pennies it takes to have your scope clear the action/ barrel. And go from there.

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You’ll have to figure out what the actual height is for the brand rings you want to use and go from there. Leupold is different from warne that’s different from vortex that’s… you get the point.

The thickness of Pennies though don’t change.

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The savages have a rather easy trigger to work with.


Pre-accu-trigger on Stevens 200
#1 is your take up. I have this set for zero creep.

#2 is your pull weight. This is about the limit for a factory trigger spring.

#3 is your over-travel. This thing had like 1/4” over travel and the trigger would hit the back of the trigger guard.

#4 is probably THE most critical. This is for the safety. Mess this up and the gun can go off when you really don’t want it to.
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I don’t do anything with out the weight gauge though. This gauge took me years and years of training and working with many mentors to learn how to use it properly.
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Breaks at a consistent 2 1/2 lbs every time.


This rifle is actually the Savage Model 11 I installed the Rifle Basix Sav-2 trigger into. It’s really close to the pre-accutrigger factory trigger. You can change the sear spring though so you can get it down to about 6-8 ounces. The factory spring lets you get down to about 2 1/2 lbs.
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My SIL is 6'6" & needs his standard LOP Sako 85 FinnLite spaced. This is timely.


I just cut a piece of 2X4 out based on what the Boyd’s procedure shows me. Run to the hardware store and get stock screws as long as the originals plus the length of the spacer.

I’ve got a 3D printer I’d planned on making these out of. Maybe someday I’ll figure out the print file.
 
I can relate to the fun of tinkering with Savage actions. Still not sold on them overall, as the aftermarket parts aren’t as common as R700’s. I’ve done my .338-06 and my brothers .280 AI on a savage 110 or Stevens 200. Still have a Stevens 200 in .30-06 that sees use too. I like the weight of it but that flimsy stock is irritating. Been an accurate rifle for me.

I feel like I got burned with Boyd’s stocks as mine cracked/split/delaminated between the action screws. Still need to tear out my bedding, fix the crack and then pillar bed it. My advice to anyone looking at Boyd’s is to order your stock with pillars included.

This thread might be the kick in the pants I need to get my .338-06 back in the saddle.
 
There are much better stocks on the market than Boyd’s.

I love the M40 stock on got from B&C. First time I pulled it up, it just fit. I love shooting that setup.

My Boyd’s, I never “liked” shooting it.
 
I can relate to the fun of tinkering with Savage actions. Still not sold on them overall, as the aftermarket parts aren’t as common as R700’s


I went to see what the difference was of a big horn origin vs a factory Savage 110 long action/ stevens 200.

Both actions cycle really nice. But then again, I’ve spent a lot of time using the Arkansas stone cleaning up machine marks.

The Bog Horn action and bolt though is also PVD coated.

The price difference?

Exactly what it would cost me to send the stevens or a Savage 110 from NSS to a shop and have it PVD coated the same as the Big Horn. That would include them polishing the action for better PVD performance . I like the top port better on the Stevens/ savage action.
 

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